The Central Park Five
Subtitle: a chronicle of a city wilding
By: Sarah Burns
Edition: 1st ed.
Publisher: Alfred A. Knopf
Published: 2011
Place of publication: New York
Language: eng
Number of pages: 240
ISBN-13: 9780307266149
Subjects: Violent crimes; Judicial error; Rape victims; Administration of Criminal justice
Description: An in-depth account of one of New York City's most notorious crimes. On April 20, 1989, the body of a woman is discovered in Central Park, her skull badly smashed. Within days, five black and Latino teenagers confess to her rape and beating. The ensuing media frenzy and hysterical public reaction is extraordinary. The young men are tried and convicted as adults, despite the fact that the teens quickly recant their inconsistent and inaccurate confessions and that no tests or eyewitness accounts tie any of them to the victim. They serve their complete sentences before another man, serial rapist Matias Reyes, confesses to the crime and is connected to it by DNA testing. Intertwining the stories of these five young men, the police officers, the district attorneys, the victim, and Reyes, author Burns unravels the forces that made both the crime and its prosecution possible.--From publisher description.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.